I ran another half marathon time trial this morning as part of my long run. The differences between this time and last time are that I can no longer run on my loop around the mall (security didn't like it when I tried to measure the loop with a wheel and they told me that I was no longer allowed to run there anymore), so I had to come up with an alternate loop that is tougher (hillier) than the original, with the other differences being that I had a partner for the first 6 miles today and I started the time trial at 5:40 today vs. 5:05 last time (not a big difference, but the heat played more of a factor today than last time because of the slightly later start time). Solomon met me at my house, and we ran a warm up of about 3.5 miles before starting the time trial at the back end of the loop (so that the last mile would have a net downhill instead of a net uphill). The loop measured out to 2.01 miles on the course tool, so I figured that if I ran six and a half laps I would only need to add on about 17 seconds to finish the half marathon. My goal going into the workout was to try and hit an average of 11:00 per lap, which would give me a finishing time of 1:11:47. I also wanted to have an average HR of about 170 for the first half of the workout, with the plan to slowly increase my HR into the mid 170's over the final few miles. We started the time trial, and Solomon went out pretty hard. It felt a little too fast, but I figured that it wouldn't be a problem as long as I backed off once my HR hit 170. The problem was that for some reason or another my HR was rising really slowly at the beginning of the tempo, so by the time I realized it we were almost done with the first loop, and we were still hitting the pace pretty hard. We finished the first loop in 10:45 (subtract about 3 seconds per loop to get a 2 mile split), and then settled into the pace my HR was giving me to follow that up with an 11:00 split for the second loop. Solomon started to drop back after the second loop, so I was leading and he was trailing me by a few meters for the majority of the third loop. At the end of the third loop Solomon passed me and then pulled ahead to finish his workout a second in front of me. I went through the third loop in 11:04 for a total time of 32:49 for 6+ miles (11 seconds ahead of goal pace, but losing time). I was all alone for the remainder of the tempo, and despite keeping my HR in the same range I slowed down even more during the next loop coming through in 11:11 (44:00). I think that the heat was starting to get to me a bit (temps were in the low to mid 80's, which is not too bad, but it still effects you when you are pushing the pace for a long time, plus the sun was out now and the sun here is brutal). So, after 8+ miles I was right on pace, but I couldn't afford to lose any more time during the next two miles. Solomon handed me a water bottle here, and I ran with the bottle for the next 1.x miles until it was empty before tossing it. I was still losing time during this loop, but after I tossed the water bottle I started working to try and make up the time I had lost. I went through the next loop in 11:11 again (55:11), which put me just a little behind goal pace, but I also knew that I was starting to make up time rather then lose more, so the goal time wasn't out the window yet. My HR rose up into the high 170's, and maybe even the low 180's during the 6th loop, and I went through the 12+ mile mark in 66:05 (10:54), meaning that I only had to run a 5:25 on the final downhill mile (but still hilly) to hit my goal time. I pushed the uphill pretty hard on this mile, and that helped me a lot, as I ran the final mile in 5:18 to hit 13+ miles in 1:11:23, followed by the final 17 seconds hard to finish up the half marathon in 1:11:40, for a finishing time that was 7 seconds faster than my goal time. The finishing time was 2 seconds slower than the last time I ran a time trial half marathon, so it was basically the same considering that the distance is merely an estimate based on measurements from the course tool. However, I think that this course is slower as the hills are much worse, and I didn't make things easier for myself by starting 35 minutes later in the morning. Add to this the fact that I started out a little too aggressively at the beginning of the time trial (thus making the rest of the workout much more difficult) and I think that the result is a fair amount better than the last half marathon time trial that I ran. Overall, I am pleased with the workout. I plan on running at least one more time trial like this in September, and possibly in early October as I prepare for a November marathon. I finished by running a cool down of about 4.4 miles at just under 8:00 pace to finish with 21 miles on the day.
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